Speech by Harold Wilson on Britain's Membership to the EEC (17 July 1971)
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Speech by Harold Wilson on Britain's membership to the EEC (17 July 1971) Source: Labour and the Common Market, Report of a special conference of the Labour Party, Central Hall, Westminster, 17 July 1971. London: Labour Party, 1971. 50 p. p. 42-49. Copyright: (c) Labour Party URL: http://www.cvce.eu/obj/speech_by_harold_wilson_on_britain_s_membership_to_the_eec_17_july_1971-en- c610eb85-fcb9-487b-8704-179006a9442f.html Publication date: 13/09/2013 1 / 10 13/09/2013 Speech by Harold Wilson on Britain's membership to the EEC (17 July 1971) Rt. Hon. Harold Wilson, M.P. (National Executive Committee): […] Our timetable today, our Conference today, is related to the procedure we shall follow from now on. On the 28 July, the National Executive Committee will take the decision whether to support or reject the Conservative Government's proposal that Britain should join the European Economic Communities on the terms which Conservative Ministers have brought back from their negotiations. […] In view of some of the references made today by a number of delegates, I feel it is right I should begin by reminding Conference of the policy we have followed as a Party over these past years. And if I have a number of quotations, I apologise. But I think I owe this to the Conference in view of the quotations by one or two in this hall—and far more outside—which are sometimes taken out of context, and which have given the wrong impression. Our 1966 Manifesto said, "Labour believes that Britain in consultation with her E.F.T.A. partners, should be ready to enter the European Community provided essential British and Commonwealth interests are safeguarded." On this basis in May, 1967, the Labour Cabinet decided to apply for entry. Announcing this to Parliament, I referred to the statement I had made the previous November that the then Foreign Secretary and I would be embarking on a series of discussions with each of the Heads of Government of the Six for the purpose of establishing whether it appeared likely that essential British and Commonwealth interests could be safeguarded if Britain were to accept the Treaty of Rome and join the E.E.C. Following the discussions in the capitals of the Six, I announced our decision to apply. I outlined our hopes of what could be achieved if satisfactory terms were obtained. I added, and here I quote, "It is also the Government's view that the financial arrangements which have been devised to meet the requirements of the Community's agricultural policy as it exists today would, if applied to Britain as they now stand, involve an inequitable cost and impose on our balance of payments an additional burden which we should not in fairness be asked to carry." That was said in the statement announcing the application. In 1969 Conference carried a resolution calling for adequate safeguards for Britain's balance of payments, cost of living, National Health and Social Security systems and power of independent decision in economic planning and foreign policy. This is what I said from the platform of that Conference. "If . we achieve terms satisfactory for Britain on the lines we have outlined, then negotiations will succeed. But, unlike the situation in 1961, we no longer face the challenge of Europe cap in hand. Europe needs us just as much, and many would say more, than we need Europe. It is the common interest of all of us to achieve economic unity, and if this cannot be achieved, we can stand on our own feet. At a heavy price for Britain, no doubt, but at a heavier price for Europe, and at a devastating price for Europe's influence in the world." In the autumn of 1969, following a pledge I gave to Conference, the Labour Government embarked on the task of assembling the best estimates that could be made of the likely cost and benefits to Britain of entry, including the cost for our balance of payments, food prices and the cost of living. In February 1970 I presented our conclusions to Parliament, the Cabinet's conclusions, with these words: "If, when the decision is to be taken, the disadvantages for Britain appear excessive in relation to the benefits which would flow from British entry, the Government clearly would not propose to Parliament we should enter the Communities. If, on the other hand, the costs, after negotiations, appear acceptable in relation to the benefits, the Government will recommend entry. "We have made it clear that if the negotiations produce acceptable conditions for British entry, we believe 2 / 10 13/09/2013 that will be advantageous for Britain, for Europe, and for Europe's voice in the world. Equally, we have made it clear that if the conditions which emerge from the negotiations are in the Government's view not acceptable, we could rely on our own strength outside the Communities." Mr. Chairman, that was our final pronouncement as a Government. In our Election Manifesto last year, 1970, referring to the negotiations then about to begin, we said: "These will be pressed with determination, with the purpose of joining an enlarged Community provided that British and essential Commonwealth interests can be safeguarded. This year, unlike 1961 1963, Britain will be negotiating from a position of economic strength. Britain's strength means we shall be able to meet the challenges and realise the opportunities of joining an enlarged Community. But it means, too, that if satisfactory terms cannot be secured in the negotiations, Britain will be able to stand on her own feet outside the Community." If there are to be charges of inconsistency, they are upon anyone who departs from those words on which we voted at the last Election. (Applause.) Our position has continued the same, after the Election, in Opposition. At last year's Conference, I repeated what I said in Parliament and in Conference about the adequacy of our strength to meet the Common Market challenge if the terms were right, and equally to enable us to stand on our own feet outside the Community if the terms were wrong. I went on: "I believe that is still true, though we shall watch anxiously how far the irresponsible men now in power in this country fritter away that strength by pursuing false economic objectives and by their policy of dividing— where we did so much to unite—our nation." I went on: "Unlike the situation eight years ago, had it been a Labour Government which secured entry into the Common Market in the present negotiations, it would not have been out of crippling weakness but out of confident strength. That strength must not now be dissipated. But if our warnings about this fall on deaf ears, there is one argument we will not accept—and we have heard it before—that, whatever the terms, we have to go in because we are too weak to stay out." (Applause.) That is what I said to Conference last year. Therefore, the position of this Party has remained consistent over this whole period. Our application was in. It remained in. If the negotiations produced the necessary safeguards, the Labour Government would have recommended entry to Parliament. In default of adequate safeguards we would have had confidence in our newly gained economic strength to sustain us outside the Common Market. That has been our approach throughout. And the decision the N.E.C. takes on the 28th July, the decision Conference will be asked to take in October, will be fully consistent with what we have said over these four years and more. Never have we said— nor is a single word we, or I, have said capable of being construed as meaning— that we have to accept whatever terms emerged. We reserved the right to judge the terms of entry against the potential benefits, and on that test, and on no other, to decide for or against entry, and this we shall do. I reject the assertions, wherever they come from, that the terms this Conservative Government have obtained are the terms the Labour Government asked for— and we did not in fact get involved in the negotiations— the terms the Labour Government would have asked for, the terms the Labour Government would have been bound to accept. I reject these assertions. (Applause.) Those terms, which we set out in detail in the Labour Government's White Paper in July, 1967, and indeed made clear to Europe, are not the terms now before Parliament. It is irresponsible for anyone who knows the facts to assert otherwise. The Labour Government set out four principal conditions. The first condition, one utterly vital to any assessment of the cost of entry in relation to the benefits, is, as many have said from this platform, the burden on our balance of payments. The Conservative Government refuse to give any estimate in public about the total size of that burden. What they have indicated is the possible cost of our short term annual membership contribution, the annual club fee, paid directly by British taxpayers and consumers and handed over to the common funds of the Communities. And that goes, of course, in the main to subsidise basically 3 / 10 13/09/2013 inefficient farm production in France and elsewhere in the Market. But on top of that there is the calculation which has to be made of the effect on Britain's trade. There is the certain damage to some of our large, traditional export markets which will be affected by our being required to adopt the Community's rules. This damage will be the greater in Commonwealth markets, because the Commonwealth preference from which we now benefit will go, and discrimination against the Commonwealth can limit their ability to buy from us.